During this trip one of our goals was to reach the historical area of San
Juan del Norte (also sometimes referred to as San Juan de Nicaragua), all the
way down at the Caribbean coast. However, the boat leaves only twice a week
to this destination, so that influenced our schedule. After calculating travel
times and drawing up different scenarios, we decided to go to San Juan del
Norte after Solentiname, but not without visiting Sábalos along the
way.

Sábalos is a small town located between San Carlos and El Castillo.
The town is named after the tarpon fish (Sábalo in Spanish), the large
fish that we had seen before in El Castillo. There are many nature and river
activities that can be undertaken from this place, but we knew we were not
going to have enough time for these attractions. Nevertheless we wanted to
stay at Sábalos for one night to get an impression of the place before
we would take the boat early in the morning to San Juan del Norte.

But first we had to get there. We would take the boat from Mancarrón
at 5AM, arriving at San Carlos at 7.30AM. We left when it was still dark, and
the boat went from wharf to wharf, picking up people from different islands,
before making its way to the mainland.

When we arrived in San Carlos we hoped to be able to right away take the 8AM
boat to Sábalos, but this one was already full and we could only make
reservations for the 11AM boat. This meant that we had again some time in San
Carlos. We had breakfast and after that we walked through the city that became
more and more familiar to us, although I still had no clue how to get from
one place to another, because all the streets seemed to lead to the central
park but I could not figure out the way this city was set up. We could also
again check our e-mail and make phone calls, because San Carlos is one of the
few places in the region with more or less good communication channels.

The boat ride was once again spectacular, and the abundance of birds and fascinating
nature never seemed to bore. It took about two hours to reach Sábalos.
This little town (around 1,000 inhabitants) is a regular stop for the boat
to El Castillo, but we had reservations for a hotel called Sábalos Lodge,
located a little east of the town, further down the river. The river-boats
have no problem with picking up or dropping off people at any place along the
route, so they dropped us off right at the wharf of the hotel.

We were greeted by the personnel with a fresh juice, and we were immediately
impressed by the setting. The hotel is situated along the border of the river
and surrounded by nature. It features comfortable, wooden cabins that overlook
the impressive river, and you get the sense that the lodge is built well in
harmony with nature.

There was not much time to enjoy the hotel’s amenities, because we had
to take advantage of the couple hours of sun that were left to see something
of the area. We decided to walk the trails that led through a small natural
reserve behind the hotel. The forest here was definitely different from the
type of forest found at the Pacific side of Nicaragua. Both the vegetation
and the animals were different. The trees were very high and the forest was
quite dense. It was in the top of one of the trees that Róger saw a
group of howler monkeys. This is one of the three monkey species that can be
found in Nicaragua, and it is also the most common monkey at the Pacific side.
We observed them for a while and we tried to take some pictures, although this
was hard because they were high up in the trees.

When we moved on we ended up at the river, and it was quite a spectacular
sight. We saw the small island in the middle of the river, in front of the
lodge, and the many herons and cormorants in the water. It was a great place
for pictures. At one point, Róger was taping a video when he heard something
in the water. He promptly moved his camera and was able to shoot the tail of
a tarpon. We then realized that we might be able to use the underwater case
for the camera that we brought. Not much later we were in the water, trying
to snap a picture when a tarpon passed by. However, the visibility was very
limited, probably due to the strong current, and a tarpon would have to basically
crash into the camera before we could take a picture. After evaluating our
chances, we decided to put the camera aside and just swim a little in the river.

The water temperature was great for swimming and the river offered a great
challenge because of the strong current. It was hardly possible to swim upstream,
and after fighting the water flow for ten minutes to reach a certain point
upstream it took only a minute to float back. One of the activities offered
by the hotel is floating down the river in a large tire, which must be a great
deal of fun. Nevertheless we had no time for that, so we just enjoyed the river
for a while before having dinner in the same hotel.

After our dinner the darkness had already set in and we wanted to participate
in a nightly activity: alligator spotting. The San Juan River provides a great
habitat for these large reptiles, and they are most active during nighttime.
Normally the alligators are sought for with a boat, but we did not make any
reservations for this activity and it was therefore not possible to do this
by boat that same night. However, we went looking for them close to the hotel,
and without much effort we were able to spot several alligators. By doing a
boat tour, it’s easy to see much more of them, but we were rather pleased
with the couple alligators that we saw in a time span of only twenty minutes.